First Capital Bank Malawi Plc, formerly known as First Merchant Bank Plc, is a

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

. It is licensed by the

Reserve Bank of Malawi The Reserve Bank of Malawi is the central bank of Malawi established in the year 1964 located in Lilongwe. The current governor is Wilson Banda. The Bank is active in promoting financial inclusion policy and is a leading member of thAlliance for ...

, the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

and national banking regulator. It is a subsidiary of FMB Capital Holdings.

Location

First Capital Bank Malawi maintains its headquarters, and main branch in Livingstone Towers, along Glyn Jones Road, in the city of

Blantyre Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is ...

, the financial capital of Malawi. The geographical coordinates of the bank's headquarters are: 15°47'08.0"S, 35°00'25.0"E (Latitude:-15.785556; Longitude:35.006944).

Overview

The First Capital Bank of Malawi is a medium-sized financial services provider in Malawi. It offers

retail bank Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking (corporate ba ...

ing services to individuals and corporate clients. As of December 2023, the bank's total asset base was valued at MWK:483.65 billion (US$280.82 million, with shareholders' equity of MWK:77.553 billion (US$45.3 million).

History

First Capital Bank was founded as First Merchant Bank in 1995 by Hitesh Anadkat and his family, who partnered with Prime Bank of

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. It became Malawi's first private bank and was granted the third ever banking licence in Malawi. With focus on Malawi's corporate market, and with a large emphasis on service and customer relationships, First Capital had a successful start and began to show profits after only two years of trading. In the year 2000, First Capital wholly acquired the ''Leasing and Finance Company Malawi Limited'', which has since been dissolved and merged into First Capital Bank Malawi. In 2008, First Capital led a consortium that was granted a banking licence in Botswana, where a subsidiary of FMBCapital Holdings Plc, First Capital Bank Botswana Limited, trades. The bank expanded its regional footprint in 2013, with the acquisition of the ICB Banking Group's businesses in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. The bank listed on Malawi's stock exchange in 2009, when almost 10 percent of its net shares were offered in the IPO. In 2017, First Capital announced that it was in the advanced stages of talks with

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

to acquire a controlling stake in Barclays' Zimbabwe operation. Also in 2017, it was announced that First Capital had wholly bought out Opportunity Bank of Malawi. In December 2017, First Capital Bank Malawi de-listed its shares from the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE). The value of First Capital stock shares were acquired by the newly-created holding company, First Merchant Bank Capital Holdings Plc (FMBCH), whose shares are now listed in the MSE. As of September 2017, First Capital Bank Malawi, was the third-largest bank in the country by assets and it enjoyed an estimated 16.8 percent market share.

FMBCapital Holdings Plc

FMBCapital Holdings Plc is the Mauritian-based holding company that owns First Capital Bank Malawi, as well as its affiliated companies. The group owns either wholly or in part, seven subsidiary companies. The Group is a large financial services conglomerate, serving communities in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

and

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. Member companies of the FMBCapital Holdings Group include the following: * First Capital Bank Malawi Limited: 100% ownership, established June 1995. * First Capital Bank Botswana Limited: 40% ownership, established July 2008. * First Capital Bank Mozambique: 70% ownership, acquired June 2013. * First Capital Bank Zambia Limited: 49% ownership, acquired June 2013. * First Capital Bank Zimbabwe Limited: 62% ownership, acquired October 2017.

Branches

, the bank maintained branches at the following locations: # Blantyre Branch: First House, Glyn Jones Road,

# Capital City Branch: Chief M’mbelwa House, Robert Mugabe Crescent, City Centre,

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, ,) is the capital and largest city of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020, that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in the central region of Malawi, i ...

# Limbe Branch: FMB Building, Churchill Road, Limbe # Lilongwe Branch: Old Kandodo Building, Kamuzu Procession Road, Lilongwe # First Corporate Service Branch: Livingstone Towers, Glyn Jones Road, Blantyre # Mzuzu Branch: Orton Chirwa Avenue,

Mzuzu Mzuzu is the capital of Malawi's Northern Region and is the third largest city by population in Malawi. The city has 221,272 residents and 20,000 commuters (Mzuzu University students) with about 1.7 million people in its metropolitan area. It i ...

# Zomba Branch: Kamuzu Highway & Main Road, Zomba In addition to the seven brick-and-mortar branches, the bank maintains another 22 agency banking locations, where the financial institution's services can be accessed.

References

External links

Website of Reserve Bank of Malawi

Website of First Capital Bank Malawi Limited
{{coord, 15, 47, 08, S, 35, 00, 25, E, display=title Banks of Malawi Banks established in 1995 1995 establishments in Malawi Blantyre FMBCapital Holdings Plc Companies listed on Malawi Stock Exchange